Hope it gives you hell
by HarlowKate
Summary: Accepting this case was the biggest mistake he'd ever make. He was called to purge a woman, scorned by a wrecked love. She turns out to be a rage-infested spirit who likes to play mindgames. Now Naru has to make it right, but at what cost?NaruxMai ONESHO


_**Hope it gives you hell..**_

Accepting this case was the biggest mistake he'd ever make. He was called to purge a woman, scorned by a wrecked love. Naru soon realizes the danger she poses when she turns out to be a rage-infested spirit, who likes to play mindgames and plunges everyone who crosses her path into despair. Now Naru has to make it right, but at what cost? NaruxMai ONESHOT

**A/N warning: I have made some changes to the story. In this fic Naru is the one that appears in Mai's dreams and he's a spirit..or something like it. So if you feel confused, just scroll all the way down where I've made some annotations to explain things.**

~Naru's POV~

Her voice echoed in his head.

"Does it hurt, Kazuya?"

The room manifested the effects of her presence. The light was blocked out, temperature had dropped to below zero. The structure of the room seemed to have changed as well, aiding the resonance. Eventhough she was only wispering, her voice rebounded harshly on every wall. Naru shivered unvoluntarily when a freezing chill put goosebumps all over his body.

"Does it hurt to see the fear in her eyes and not being able to hold her?"

It was like she was standing right next to him, whispering in his ear. Only he was the only one in the room.

"Show yourself, jibakurei." His clear steady voice rang through the room. He knew how the handle himself whenever he came face to face with paranormal creatures, the mask of fearlessness was put firmly over his face. Yet the air was so thick, it almost felt as if Naru was suffocating.

"Does it?" she whispered.

His eyes scanned the room, staying alert to spot any change immediately.

"When Bou-san cups her face and wipes her tears away, does your body not tremble with enraged jealousy?" He felt like something was circling him, something so close he could nearly touch it.

"When she laughs with Yasuhara-san, don't you wish she would only look at you?"

"I know your tricks. Don't waste your breath." She was trying to get into his head.

"I saw right through you." A sudden giggle ringing through the air startled Naru.

"The moment you stepped into my territory, ghost hunter, I saw your secret." The muscles in his jaw tensed as he realized she was playing with him and having a great time.

"Your first mistake, Kazuya." Her voice had turned mellow and soft, as if she was being compassionate.

"You should have known. You, of all people in your ridiculous little group of physics, shouldn't have entered here," She paused. "and then you brought her along. Your second mistake."

"You love her, don't you." The way she said it was like she didn't need his confirmation. She was sure of it.

Naru stayed silent, trying to clear his face of emotions. It's what she wanted, to see the effects of her words on him.

"Mai." The spirit left her name to linger in his mind.

A chill trickled from his neck, to fall between his shoulder blades when he heard her voice uttering her name. Naru suddenly felt very uneasy at where the conversation was headed.

He should have expected her to know this. Years, decades, centuries of being obsessively focused on observing people in love had turned her into a heartless and dangerous monster, but it had also given her all the tools to recognize the mannerisms of someone in love.

"Your words are pointless, jibakurei. You will be driven out of this house and leave everyone in peace." He gave his automatic response, putting on the air of someone bored by her words.

"Does it hurt, Kazuya?" More than being annoyed at how she kept ignoring his words, he didn't like how his name rolled of her tongue.

"Does it hurt putting her in danger every time you go on your ridiculous goose hunts to find your brother. You can't ask only her to leave, because she wouldn't leave her friends behind."

She chuckled. "And of course you can't ask all of them to leave, because you need your puppets. You are a quite selfish creature, aren't you."

"You think I care about the judgement of an empty sad being like you?" He said with a mocking smile.

"Still that girl crawled under your skin, and she actually thinks she loves you." She laughed loudly without any humurous note to it. "The poor girl doesn't know anything yet. Isn't it crazy how it works sometimes?"

"Of course _you_ would know all about that." Naru stated coldly.

"Don't treat me like a fool, Alma. You're not the only one who can dig up someone's dirt. I know all about your life story and your sad failed love life." She faltered to find words to continue her monologue, finally she reacted to something he said. She narrowed her eyes at him and glared.

"Your desperation at being separated from your lover put you into this pitiful state you're in. Do you think he would have wanted to see you like this?"

"YOU KNOW NOTHING OF HIM." Her voice screeched through the room. Naru cringed, he could barely contain the urge to push his hands against his ears. He felt her distance herself from him. From across the room he heard the loud pitiful whimpers.

"You don't have to be like this. I can set you free."

There was complete silence in the room except for her continued whimpering. Then something changed, he could hear chuckles intermingling with the whimpers. Disturbed, he narrowed his eyes and waited.

"Oh they would like that, wouldn't they. That's your job right, ghost hunter, to get rid of me. That's why they called you here. But, " she advanced on him again "I am only getting started on their punishment." She smiled sickeningly sweet.

"For a minute there I thought you were actually concerned about me." She scrooned playfully.

"Now now, enough talk about me. I want to know more about you." Startled he felt something touch his hair. He felt it was being lifted softly, as if someone was rubbing their hand through it lovingly.

"You know, I have the perfect weapon in my grasp to bring pain upon others. People can take a lot, they're a very resilient race of creatures. They have one great weakness though. If you involve their loved ones, they become like putty in my hands." She shook her head lightly as if she regretted the ease with which she made her victims.

"When you entered the house though, I knew you were different. I knew you would be a challenge. That hard and unbending front you put up. The cold precision with which you analyse and progress everything rationally and statistically. Frankly, you didn't look as if you were able to love. Then I started observing you, and soon I saw I had been mistaken, very mistaken. This cold attitude of yours, Kazuya, it's a lie isn't it?" There was faked sadness in her voice.

"Isn't it true that behind those cold hard eyes, you're crying?"

He scoffed, full with sarcasm. "You don't think I'm actually listening, do you."

He saw something appear. Dark blue and purple ectoplasm seeped out of the air, right where the source of her voice was. It twisted and bend in various shapes, and soon he could see the outline of a human body. The spirit was shifting into her human form. Her long and slender body was wrapped in an beautiful and intricate yukata. She was bare feet and her long sleek hair covered her naked shoulders, where her yukata had slid off a bit. She had been a beautiful woman. She folded her frail looking fingers in front of her and swayed her shoulders lightly. She took on, something he supposed was, the cute and endearing mannerisms of a child. As soon as her face was visible though a twisted smile appeared on her face. Eventhough this wasn't in the least assuring, at least he could keep an eye on her now.

"You're surprised, arn't you." She giggled happy. "I'm beautiful, right?" She cocked her head to the side and her right hand played with her hair, tugging it around her fingers. "We tend to get more beautiful with the glow of death that pales our skin." She looked down upon herself and smiled.

"I must say, my deceasing didn't do me wrong." Moving her eyes back to his face, she locked her gaze onto his. "It didn't do you wrong either, Kazuya." She grinned.

Hearing those words, his heart skipped a bit. "So you know."

She laughed dismissively, "Of course I know."

"You managed to make a perfect facade." She advanced to him. "I have never heard of such a thing before." She looked at him mesmerized. Naru felt an uncomfortable feeling creep up. When she stopped right in front of him, he noticed she was actually half a head shorter than him. She had looked taller when she had just shifted into this secondary form. He couldn't let himself be fooled by her appearance though. Even if she didn't look like she was dangerous, she had centuries of experience and tricks under her pale hand reached forward towards his cheek. Naru's eyes hardened like steel, daring her to touch him. Her hand hesitated mid-air.

She averted her gaze, looking slightly miffed and dropped her hand down to her side. "Well much good it doesn't do you."

Clearing away her unhapiness from just a few seconds ago, she turned to him with a bright smile, fully intentional on continueing her game.

"Even if it did catch your sweet Mai's attention, you can never go further than that. It's so heart-wrenching." She said eventhough her smile spoke otherwise.

"So you resort to invading her dreams. A realm in which human bodies are of no relevance, there's no need for you to maintain the facade. You can let your soul reign free and show her who you really are. That must be nice, hmm?" She mocked. Naru felt sick to his stomach with how much knowledge she had about him. He had greatly underestimated the danger she posed.

"So nice in fact, every time you enter her dream world and call out to her soul, it gets harder to let her go and let her return to the human world. Don't try to deny it as if you've never even thought about it." She winked. "What a very dangerous longing it is. As we both know, if the soul is seperated too long from the body, the body will have died and the soul cannot return anymore. Which means," An inhumanly wide smile ripped on her face. "when the loneliness finally drives you mad, you won't be able to fight the desire to keep her soul prison. And you'll kill her." His cold uninterested stare seemed to displease her. She frowned, it annoyed her that he wasn't reacting to her taunts.

But inside, he was screaming. Each denayal screamed louder than the next. He would never do that to her. He would never harm her. Still he was scared.

Sometimes he got so messed up, he didn't know what he was feeling anymore. How could be trust in himself when he was an enigma even to himself? He still didn't fully understand what he was and he was scared to find out his limits.

"She's such a cute little thing. Such big, caring, naive eyes with which she looks upon you. Actually she's so endearing, that if your cowardly ways take too long to call her over to our side, I could be tempted to do it for you."

Naru knew it was a mistake, but he lost control.

"You will not touch her!" His voice snarled through the room.

Her body suddenly swirled back into the formless dark blue, purple ectoplasm.

"You sealed your own fate, ghost hunter." She reciprocated just as vehemently. "You have no one to blame but yourself! Now you shall bear the consequences."

"I will never let you have her." He desperately tried to pull himself together again.

She scoffed. "I am not interested in her. She is of no importance."

He felt as if a layer of ice had been put on his cheek. "I want you, Kazuya." Her freezing touch seeped into his skin.

Naru was about to pull his head back roughly when her next words made him tense up. "I want to destroy you. I know what you are."

"You are an abomination to nature. You are not supposed to exist as you are." Suddenly a pain erupted in his lower abdomen. He doubled over and grasped it. It felt as if someone had pushed their hand in his stomach with a powerful blow and grasped his insides firmly. Then the sensation lifted, from his stomach to his chest, from his lungs to his throat. She was trying to pull his soul out. Reacting on instinct he gathered his ki on the surface of his body, and made it explode out of him. He heard her shriek of pain, and the pulling sensation dissapeared. He fell down on his knees and grasped his painful throath, coughing and gasping.

"Why are you resisting me, ghost hunter." She exclaimed furiously. She hadn't been expecting his counter-attack.

"I will eradicate this mistake. It is for the best." The faint outlines of her human body were sketched in the air and she offered a hand to him.

"All you have to do is follow me." Lifting a hand up from his crouching position, he slapped her hand away and glared up at her.

"I am going nowhere with you, jibakurei." He bit out, panting in between the words.

She seethed and recoiled. Her glaring eyes rested on his, as if sizing him up. What she saw in him seemed to anger her further. Her mouth pushed into a disgusted grimace and she averted her gaze. She shifted into her primary form again, dissappearing from the sight of the human eye. He felt her energy lessen and starting to retract from the room. Could it be she was giving up? As soon as he heard her whispered words though, he knew she hadn't.

"You can't win, Kazuya. I know your weakness." Her giggles echoed in the dark room.

"I guess I would have to thank you." As her presence faded away, her words grew softer.

_"You brought it with you into the house._"

Her presence left, he felt the room breathe in life again. Her disturbing farewell words kept replaying in his head.

Only now he felt the after-effects of using kikou. His head swayed down and he fell back against the wall dizzily. His body felt like a ton of bricks as it slid down the wall, to rest on the floor. Naru knew something was horribly wrong. A thought kept mulling over in his head. He didn't want to believe it.

When she said she knew his weakness, he knew exactly what, or who she was alluding to and that knowledge held his heart in the cold grasp of raw fear.

~Mai's POV~

"Sweet Mai."

I opened my eyes drowsily and tried to focus on the voice. It sounded so far away.

"Wake up, Mai."

For some reason I was having a real difficulty clearing my senses.

"Mai, he's in danger!"

I awoke with a startle, and sat upright. This time the voice had yelled into my ears. I looked around, no one was here but me.

"Mai," the voice I recognized as Alma's now, spoke softly but urgently " the old brewery. They are holding him there."

"What..what do you mean, Alma? Who is being held there?" I asked confused and alarmed.

The woman's ominous voice echoed his name in my head. "Naru."

My eyes widened in shock. The ghosts had made their move on Naru? There was something strange about that. I shook my head vehemently and jumped out of bed. There's was no time to think it through.

"Alma! Who are they, I need to know!" This time there was no voice coming out of the air. She had left.

In a heart-stopping panic, I ran out of the room.

~-----~

Something wasn't right. This place looked totally abandoned. "Naru!"

I yelled out. "Naru, where are you!"

I started running around randomly. It was one big room with a high ceiling, almost every corner filled with the maze of pipes and copper kettles. Some kettles were so big they reached from the ground to the ceiling. I ran along side them, turning corners and slipping in between. After I had run through the place three times and with still no sign of Naru, I stopped and leaned one hand against one of the instruments. I bowed my head and panted, I was feeling a bit dizzy because of all the psychical exercise after brusquely being awakened from sleep. When my breathing had become a bit more regular, my eyes focused on the metal hatch the was right beneath the hand I had used to support myself. An idea come to mind and I opened it. The belly of the beer kettle was pretty murky. The metal was stained with rust and I spotted some water at the bottom. It hadn't been used for decades, so now it was filled with dirty water from leakage of the drains. Could he be held captive in one of the kettles? Once again I screamed his name into the cold air. No response. Even if he was inside one, I should be able to hear it.

He wasn't here.

A sudden push on my back, and I felt myself falling.

The fall seemed to last forever. I broke through the freezing water and submerged. In shock I fought my way back to the surface, fighting against my muscles, reluctant to spur into action because of the freezing water and fighting against to urge to inhale water. Breaking through the surface, I coughed and gasped in air.

What was this? What was happening? I had definitely felt something push me. A cold chill settled over my body. This was bad. I was inside the huge copper beer kettle. After I spotted the little metal ladder, I swam to it when a sudden clanging noise startled me. I looked up and saw the little metal hatch door had been closed. My heart stopped. Then the sound of rushing water filled my ears. Another metal hatch that I hadn't spotted till now, had been opened. It was connected to the water pipes that had been used to clean the beer kettle once in a while. A big stream of dirty water started pouring in, splattering in my eyes. With a cold almost detached feeling I understood what this meant. In a few minutes the water level would have risen to the top of the container.

I was going to die here.

~-----~

After pulling on the metal hatch and banging it with my fists for a while, I realized it was useless. Fatigued from the cold temperature of the water, the physical efforts and the continued state of panic since I awoke, I let myself fall back into the water. The sound of the water rushing in moved back to the background, the faint light that shined through the hatch started to become dimmer. I was starting to lose consciousness. All I could think about before I closed my eyes from exhaustion, was his name.

"Naru.."

~Naru's POV~

His senses perked up with a sudden alertness. He could have sworn he heard something. Could it be..Mai?

"Kazuya."

He was brusquely alerted of someone else's presence.

"Kazuya, you have lost." The glee radiated off of her. Something was terrible wrong.

"You dare show yourself in front of me, Alma."

"Oh if you want to have a throwdown be my guest, but I think you have more pressing matters." Her gleaming dead eyes beamed at him with the arrogance of an untouchable victor.

"What are you talking about." He bit out. Something was really wrong. He did not have the patience for her games.

"Mai." She smiled a merciless grin and threw the words he had hoped never to hear into his face, letting them to linger in the air.

"She is dieing."

~-----~

He awoke with cold sweat running down his neck, and something else, something salty, falling down his cheek. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. All he did was tear through the house, running as fast and faster than his feet could take him to the place he knew she would be.

~-----~

Her dead body lay on the bottom of the container. He couldn't grasp it. Every time he tried to process the meaning of the scene before him, it slipped away from him. After he had drained the water back into the pipes, he crawled into the copper cage and with a bit of difficulty gathered her cold small body in his arms and got them both out of the container. Laying her down on the floor, he took off his pyjama top and put it around her shoulders. He had to get her warm. She shouldn't be cold.

~still Naru's POV~

Lin, Bou-san and Ayako stormed in through the door. Each and every one of them stopped dead in their tracks, horrified when their eyes came to lay upon the scene in front of them. Ayako gasped, putting her hand to her mouth in shock and fell to her knees. Bou-san and Lin rushed to his side. Bou-san grasped Mai's cold shoulders and shook her, screaming for her to wake up. Lin took hold of Mai's wrist, measuring her pulse. When he lay it silently back on the ground and stared at Mai's face, a deep sorrow entered his gaze. That broke the numbing spell on me. Mai was dead.

"Mai.." I pushed her name out of throat. The whispered word pulled Lin's attention on me.

I reached my fingers out at her face, and carefully pushed the clinging wet hair away from her face. I took in the unnatural blue hue to her lips and skin.

Stroking her cheek, I heard someone keep calling out to her. "Mai.." No, it was me who was calling out. Then something inside me broke.

A flood of horror, shock, disbelief and pain crashed over me. I had finally managed to grasp the concept of Mai's death. It was unbearable. The last thing I did while my heart still beat, was lift up my head towards the skies. I locked eyes with Lin briefly along the way. I hoped it had conveyed my apology to Lin for making him break the promise he had made to my parents. And as understanding and horror crept into Lin's widening eyes, I closed my eyes in concentration. The last thing I heard while my heart still beat, was Lin's voice, screaming out in desperation. I opened my mouth and let out a long, desperate and pain-filled cry.

"Naru, don't!"

A brilliant blinding light exploded from my body into the room. Then, with a colossal effort, I ripped my soul away from my body.

~-----~

I watched from above as my body sagged to the side and fell down on the ground, lifelessly. I didn't have a lot of time. I turned away from the scene after seeing Lin's futile attempts at pulling me back into the human world. I knew what I had to do, and time was running out.

~Mai's POV~

A light. It was so clear and shining, it had a great luring effect on me. Everything else was so grim and distant. It's like the light stirred my thoughts into action, as opposed to the paralyzing effect the gray environment that I was in induced. I didn't want to stay here any longer. I set resolute steps towards the light. Nearing it, I saw thousands of other lights appear all around me. Feeling comforted by their presence, I followed them. We seemed to want to go in the same direction. The closer I got, the more heated the air around me seemed to get. It warmed my skin, it was nice. I smiled. Suddenly there were loud, fast footsteps from behind me. Then a desperate voice cried out.

"Mai, stop! Don't go there!"

Next thing I knew I felt a pair of arms embrace me from behind. I was pulled back, pushed against someone's body and held there firmly. He pushed his face against the back of my neck, and I could feel his laboured breath.

"Thank god..I was just in time.." His relieved voice spoke softly. His hold was so intense, it was almost painful. His breathing slowed and became so silent.

Then something broke through the silence. A soft pained sob reached my ears. "Mai..you can't go.."

For some reason it made me very uneasy to hear him make this sound. I pried myself loose from his hold and turned around. Then I knew why I had felt that way. This someone was Naru. I didn't know why I hadn't realized that sooner. I smiled, wanting to comfort him. I reached my hand up and stroked it through the side of his hair gently.

"Don't cry, Naru. It's okay. Everything will be alright."

A flash of surprise in his eyes before he narrowed them in thought. He seemed to have just understood something. He grasped my hand that had been stroking his hair, pulled it down to his side and weaved his fingers through mine. "Mai, listen, I don't have time to explain it to you. You have to follow me and we have to be quick, okay?"

His grey eyes were piercing into mine with such intensity, I could only nod in compliance. Then he started to run, and tugged me behind him. As we ran, I started to feel colder and colder. I looked back over my shoulder and realized we were running away from the warm light. It felt wrong. I didn't want to distance myself from it.

"Naru.." I spoke up softly, trying to pull his attention. He didn't react though, so I tried calling him louder. When he still didn't glance at me, I tried pulling hand back. This made him stop running though he didn't release my hand. He turned to me with a questioning look.

"Naru, I don't want to leave from here. Why are you taking me away?"

"Mai, we don't have time for-"

I ripped my hand free from his. "But it doesn't feel right! I don't want to!" My loud voice startled Naru as well as myself. I have no idea where that outburst came from. Naru averted his gaze, and I saw him mull over my words in his head. A conflict was tearing him up inside.

"You have to trust me. It may feel unpleasant for a while, but I promise you, it will be okay."

I couldn't ignore the desperate plea in his eyes. I grasped his hand, waiting for him to guide me again. A tired smile appeared on Naru's face, relief filling his eyes. He enforced his hold on my hand and we ran.

~-----~

This seems familiar. I think I know those people. There are three of them hunched over two others who were laying on the floor. Their actions were quick and reckless, as if they were all in a great panic. I stared at them, immersed in my thoughts. It was like something important was being blocked from coming to my senses. As if there were memories in my head I couldn't reach.

Naru turned me to face him. "You have to listen to me carefully."

"There. " He pointed to one of the people who were lieing on the floor. It was a girl. "That's you, Mai. You need to go back there."

I crunched my eyebrows up in confusion. That was me? Then what was I at the moment? Looking more closely, my eyes shifted to the figure laying next to the girl that was supposedly me. It was a boy, he was lying half on top of the girl. One arm over her side and his chest touching the side of her body, where her heart should be. Something looked off though, the position looked akwuard as if he had just fallen on top her and his arm hung limply. His face was partly hidden by his onyx hair but when I peered closer, I gasped in surprise. That was Naru!

I turned questioning eyes back to him. "Naru, you're there too!"

Naru frowned briefly and then his eyes regareded me silently. He looked...guilty?

Something clicked in my head. We were both in the realm between the human world and the after-life. With the only difference of me being forced to enter here while Naru had entered willingly. Then I came to understand just what he had done.

"No.." Bringing my hands up to my mouth in horror, I shook my head vehemently.

Naru grasped my shoulders, urgently. "Mai, listen to me."

"No.." I whimpered. I will _not_ be the cause for Naru's death. The sheer thought made me sick to my stomach.

"Mai, look at me!" He yelled at me.

I felt that if I did what he asked me to, he wouldn't be able to return to his body. I recalled the looks he had earlier. Ever since he stopped me from following the lights, his eyes had looked as if they were trying to memorize everything, as if he was seeing everything for the last time.

"No!" I cried out, ripping myself free from his hold. Breathing heavily, I took a few shaky steps back, away from him.

"I will not let you trade your life for mine. I will not do what you ask me to."

Naru watched me, all emotions clearing from his face. He was the cold person I used to know again. "Then I'll just have to make you."

He closed his eyes, and a look of concentration washed over his face. All signs of stress from his face cleared and he looked almost peaceful.

I noticed a shift in the air. It's substance changed, becoming heavy and sticky. It clinged on my skin. Then a ringing sound filled my ears. It was so strong I put my hands over my ears in an attempt to block it out. I realized with a jolt, I had experienced this before. As that time he destroyed the ebisu, Naru was calling upon his ki. And I had a strong feeling, even if I had never dreamed of it happening, he would use it on me.

I spurred into action. Taking my hands off my ears, I ran towards him. I wanted to shake him, to break his concentration and stop him from channeling his ki. I reached out a hand towards him and instead of feeling his skin on mine, an electric jolt went through my fingers. Startled, I retracted my hand. Cradling my hurting hand with the other, I stared at him and realized I couldn't stop him. My heart beat painfully against my ribs and all I could do was wait.

A bright, warm glow emanated from Naru's skin. With his eyes still closed, he lifted his arms above his head. An pool of energy gathered around his hands. His eyes opened, and he brought his hands down in a straight line in front of him. Two different beams of energy exploded from his hands. They went directly to me. I closed my eyes in fear, waiting for the impact.

Instead of the blow and the pain, I felt something hot envelop me. I opened my eyes, and saw it had wrapped all around me, limiting my movements. It was very unpleasant being held by it. It was too hot, it felt like it was burning my skin, and it gave off sporadical small electric shocks to my skin.

The otherwordly look on his face had dissappeared and he was back to the Naru I knew. His eyes observed me, immobilized by the straining binds, put on me by his own hands, with suffering and regret. He walked towards me, stopping right in front of me. He bit his lip harshly. "I'm sorry, Mai.." A lone tear trickled down his jaw.

Not the sight of him crying but the determination in his eyes made the panic shoot right back through my body. I started to struggle heavily and desperately against the binds. "Don't do this.."

But the more I struggled, the more electric shots pierced my skin and soon tears were streaming down my face from the pain and the reality I had been trying to deny. I hung my head defeated and started sobbing quietly. "I won't ever live happily if you do this. There's no point to it." My voice was so broken I didn't even know if he could understand me. "Please don't do it."

I tried pleading with him as a last resort. He reached a hand out to me, it went through the binds and I felt his warm touch on my face.

He smiled sadly. "You have to live."

Putting gentle fingers under my tear-streaked chin, he made me look up and locked my eyes to his. His beautiful grey eyes stayed on me and they saw me, not just Mai, the clumsy schoolgirl, but the real me.

"I love you."

My heart stopped. Did he just -?

Before I could even finish that thought, I felt an enormous pull on me and something ripped me away from Naru. I was roughly pulled away from his touch. The binds, they were moving me, so it must be Naru that's controlling them. The last thing I saw before being plunged to the world below, before rejoining the three people that wouldn't even spare me one glance after they heard what I had made Naru do, was Naru's bittersweet smile break up into a forlorn one when he pushed me away from himself, and pushed me back into the human world.

~-----~

**A/N I apologize if the change of POV gets confusing. I wanted to write in a way that you felt in the middle of what was happening. I realize you guys were dropped in the middle of the story. Eventhough I didn't write out Alma's story, I hope her motives make sense. I just wanted to write an intense scene between Naru and Mai and needed a katalyst for the situations. If there are some things that need clearing up, feel free to tell me! I don't always know if it makes as much sense on paper as in my head.**

**I will start with these:**

**- Since the beginning of the series I imagined Naru himself was a spirit. I thought that could be an explanation as to why he and Mai kept meeting in her dream world. Eventually nothing in the series alluded to that, but in this story I did keep that assumption. After his death, he was able to come back to the human world but his soul was never again attached as firmly to his body as with normal people. This allowed him to de-attach it on his free will with his kikou. This could be seen as equal to committing suicide. He and Alma talk about his facade, it's not really a trickery. It is alive but just barely. It could be seen as having problems with your immune system after an organ transplant. It works, but sometimes it sabotages himself. So that's why Naru doesn't feel as good in his skin as when he's in Mai's dreamworld and can be himself. **

**-If you're wondering why Mai took Alma's warning to heart without a second thought, it's because Alma managed to win her trust. She played on Mai's insecurities regarding Naru, knowing this was her weakness. As was said in the story Alma is very sly and can get easily in your head.**

**- When Naru says he knows where to find Mai, it's because the old brewery is the same place where Alma committed suicide.**

**- There are two reasons why Alma hates Naru. One being she hates anyone that's in love. The second one makes her hate Naru even more. She realizes that he gained a second chance at life by having his soul re-attached. She cannot stand this thought as her lover hadn't gotten the same opportunity, and had been taken from her brusquely. She killed Mai because she saw the amount of ki Naru controlled and knew she wouldn't be able to kill him if it came to a fight. So she decided to hurt him like this which she knew was just as good as killing him. This is also why she keeps changing forms during their conversation. Her vanity persuades her to show Naru her human form, however she stays alert because like this she is much more vulnerable than in her spirit from. This is why when she provokes Naru too far and he lashes out at her, she gets scared and transforms back. **

**- The reason why Naru is in such a hurry once inside the spirit world is because he has to get Mai's soul back into her body before it progressed too far in the proces of decay to be revived again.  
- When Alma says "You, of all people in your ridiculous little group of physics, shouldn't have entered here", she means that he is the only one of them that is in love, so he runs a much greater risk upon entering the house she haunts. And when I say in love, I don't mean like the crush that Masako has on Naru. (That's how I interprete it because I am all for NaruxMai) As for Mai, Alma states she doesn't believe Mai loves Naru, because Mai doesn't know him well enough.  
- It may seem stupid of Mai that she doesn't want to return to the human world because she doesn't want Naru to sacrifice himself even when Naru has no hope of returning. But like she states in the story, she believes she won't be happy living off of Naru's sacrifice and she wouldn't be able to face Lin, Ayako and Bou-san ever again.**

**Okay I'm shutting up now before the annotations become as long as the story itself. Hope you enjoyed it!**


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